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February 25, 2012

War is sweet to those who have no experience of it, but the experienced man trembles exceedingly at heart on its approach. ~ Pindar (518 - 438 BC).

As poetry is "passion recollected in tranquility" (Wordsworth), so perhaps history can be viewed as infamy robbed of passion. The lessons of war are dimmed by the passage of time. Once that occurs, the notion,"That can't happen now," takes root and another generation must pay the price for neglecting the costly sacrifice and struggles of their forefathers. Experience does matter, but perhaps the remembrance of that experience matters more.

In my prior post we touched briefly on the subject of mankind's satanic-inspired enmity towards the Jews - hundreds of lives lost but still a single incident, a lone, dark wave in a sea of hatred, prejudice and murder. Most of the time the waves are constant and predictable, and the Jews have many centuries of experience in making adjustments to accommodate these waves. But now and again the sea is roiled with malice; it becomes unpredictable and deadly beyond imagining. World War II was such a time, unequalled in ferocity and purpose.

But even in the greatest darkness there always seems to be a few points of light.

Few could have predicted the utter evil, the callous malevolence of the Nazis and how it fed sympathetic temperaments throughout the world. In this war the unspeakable became commonplace and sudden, violent death became a blessing. This is where Hiram "Harry" Bingham IVfound himself at the onset of WWII.

In 1940, Bingham was a low-ranking American diplomat stationed in Marseilles.

Bingham, 37, was descended from prominent politicians, social scientists and missionaries. His grandfather's book, "A Residence of Twenty-One Years in the Sandwich Islands," presaged James Michener's Hawaii. His father, Hiram Bingham III, was a renowned explorer and, later, a U.S. senator. After a prep school and Ivy League education, Hiram, known as Harry, seemed destined for a brilliant career in the Foreign Service.

Hiram did not have the brilliant Foreign Service career envisioned by his family and friends. Instead, he ended up back on the family farm in Connecticut where he died in 1988. His career in the State Department was short circuited because he violated US foreign policy by assisting French Jews in escaping from the Vichy government - Nazi puppets - and certain death.

Bingham also worried that "the young Nazis [were] warped and infected with a fanaticism which may make them impossible to deal with for years." He added: "Hitler has all the virtues of the devil—courage, persistence, stamina, cunning, perseverance."

[...]But as World War II approached, Bingham made a series of life-altering choices. By sheltering Feuchtwanger in his private villa, Bingham violated both French law and U.S. policy. To draw attention to hunger and disease in the French camps, he challenged indifference and anti-Semitism among his State Department superiors. In speeding up visa and travel documents at the Marseilles consulate, he disobeyed orders from Washington. In all, an estimated 2,500 refugees were able to flee to safety because of Bingham's help. Some of his beneficiaries were famous—Marc Chagall, Hannah Arendt, Max Ernst—but most were not.

Bingham was ultimately bounced to Argentina just prior to the entry of the US into WWII. Serving as Vice Consul, Bingham was adamant in his disapproval of Argentina's sheltering of Nazi war criminals. His protests were ignored by the State Department. Bingham finally quit the Foreign Service shortly after the end of the war.

No one ever knew about his service to the Jews until his wife died in 1996. While going through his mother's effects, Hiram's son, William, discovered papers that had been put away for many years; these papers documented Hiram's life-saving actions.

Hiram Bingham IV

Perhaps demonstrating how Hiram thought of his life in relation to his God and other people, his daughter Abigail recalls a hymn that was often sung at family events:

Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision,
offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever,
'twixt that darkness and that light.

A letter from the The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority honoring Hiram Bingham IV is here. There is even a commemorative postage stamp of Mr. Bingham.

February 24, 2012

Until today, I had never heard of the SS Struma and the nearly 800 Jewish refugees who were killed aboard this vessel. It was seventy years ago today, 24 FEB 1942, when a soviet submarine torpedoed the Struma, killing all but one person aboard her.

The Russian Shchuka (Щука) class submarine SC-213, responsible for the sinking of SS STRUMA, with 768 passengers and crew killed.

This atrocity was the coldblooded handiwork of Great Britain (committed while it combated the Germans but remarkably without compassion for their Jewish victims), supposedly neutral Turkey (whose so-called nonalignment didn’t extend to outcast Jewish refugees), by the Arabs (who were openly and unreservedly Nazism’s avid collaborators and who pressured London into denying endangered Jews asylum in the Jewish homeland) and, finally, by the Russians (who targeted the immobilized sardine can that carried Jews to whom nobody would allow a toehold on terra firma).

The entire world seemed united in signaling Jews how utterly unwanted they were anywhere.

The Struma was an ancient, decrepit barge with a cobbed together engine that fled the Rumanian port of Constana with its human cargo on 8 DEC 1941. On 12 DEC 1941 the Struma finally reached Istanbul, Turkey. Once there, the refugees anticipated that the Britsh would allow them to continue on to what would later become Israel. But they would need assistance as the Struma's engine had failed and the refugees were out of food and water. Permission to proceed and assistance were both denied. This condition persisted for over two months while the Jews languished in the harbor. Living conditions aboard the Struma became hellish.

The British didn’t bother to answer ensuing emotional Jewish Agency entreaties on January 30 and February 10. Then they acquiesced to the entry of four visa-holders, who only at this point were permitted to disembark. More news of the dreadful conditions on the Struma now came out.

The new British line was that the Struma’s refugees were suspect Nazi agents because they came from enemy territory. The assertion that the Germans’ most hideously persecuted victims were their tormenters’ spies was labeled “Satanic” in embryonic Israel.

Scores of Jews died from disease and malnutrition before the Turkish government stormed the ship on 23 FEB 1942, savagely beat the refugees, cut the anchors and towed it out into the Black Sea where they abandoned it. The next day the Russians sank it.

Go here to read the full, grotesque story. And never question why Israel relies upon itself for defense.

NOTE:
The Soviet Submarine SC-213 was sunk on October 14, 1942, when it hit a Romanian mine in the Black Sea. The wreck was found in 2008, but it took 2 years to identify her. Obviously all hands were lost. Pity.

"A group of 11 men plied girls as young as 13 with drink and drugs so they could use them for sex, a [Greater Manchester] court has heard"...

...writes the BBC in a story that is perhaps as significant for what we learn from the story as for what we do not learn. (Because what we do not learn, you understand, is totally irrelevant, has no bearing on the story — whatsoever — and only goes to show the racism of intolerant Westerners like myself who dare to notice that kind of things.)

Liverpool Crown Court heard how the men, aged between 22 and 59 and from Oldham and Rochdale, "acted together to sexually exploit the girls".
All deny conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child under 16.
Rachel Smith, opening the case for the prosecution, said one 13-year-old fell pregnant to one of the defendants and had an abortion.Another teenager recalled being raped by two men while she was "so drunk she was vomiting over the side of the bed", she added.
She said another girl felt flattered by the attention but that she quickly became regularly heavily drunk, depressed and "incapable of getting herself out of the situation".Miss Smith said: "No child should be exploited as these girls say they were."

'Raped and assaulted'

The court heard that some of the girls were raped and physically assaulted and some were forced to have sex with "several men in a day, several times a week".
Miss Smith said the girls were given alcohol, food and money in return for sex but that there were times when violence was used.

So far, so good (so to speak). But look at the picture of the defendants. What is clear to the average viewer is never addressed in depth by the BBC piece, let alone mentioned at all: all the defendants are or appear to be from the Middle East or, alternatively, they are second- or third-generation immigrants. (Incidentally, there is no mention of the origin of the girls, either, whether they are of Western extraction, whether they share the defendants' Muslim and immigrant background — my guess — or whether they are a mixture of both…) Indeed: a look at the defendants' names seems to confirm the "hunch" that the 11 men are Muslim — every single one of them.

As an aside, anybody is free to plead not guilty to conspiracy, of course. However, needless to say, in at least some Muslim quarters (see how I am being a good politically correct Westerner and how I am making an effort not to "put all Muslims in the same bag"?!?), doing so would be entirely natural in the circumstances, while pleading guilty would seem untoward, in view of the fact that in Muslim society what happened might fit in with the Koran's temporary marriage (Nikah mut‘ah) condition…

A father has been arrested after smashing his son in the face with a mug for not paying attention to the President's State of the Union speech last month, authorities said.

Mohamed Shohan, 49, was charged with third-degree assault yesterday along with disorderly conduct and risk of injury to a child.

Obviously the man was only treating his son for Obama Deficit Disorder (ODD). From now on, when Our Dear Beloved Leader speaks, you WILL listen. Also, notice the Irish last name, obviously shortened from O'Shannahan.

While House Democrats appeared to be very pleased with the President's smash-mouth brand of politics, Republicans were shocked.

February 23, 2012

THIS is an incredibly entertaining and informative four part series by Pastor Andy Stanley on what is wrong with the American dating scene and how to address its deficiencies through a God-centered focus in our lives. Give it a play, you won't be disappointed.

Andy Stanley is the son of Charles Stanley, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Altanta.

Part 1: The Right Person Myth

When I meet the right person, everything will be all right. This way of thinking creates trouble in our dating lives and sets us up for trouble in marriage. In this message, Andy challenges us to ask ourselves Am I the person the person I'm looking for is looking for? And he previews God's list of behaviors that will lead to success in dating and marriage.

Part 2: Gentleman's Club

Are the Bible's teachings about women relevant? In this message, Andy explains that Jesus' teachings about honoring women were extremely counter-cultural in the first century. They remain so today. So Christian men especially need to transform their thinking. And there are two simple steps to start with.

Part 3: Designer Sex

Culture convinces us - and sometimes we convince ourselves - that sex is only physical. But if that is true, why is the pain of sexual sin so deep? Because sex is not just physical. It was designed by God to be so much more. In this message, Andy addresses common myths about sex outside of marriage and has two specific challenges going forward.

Part 4: If I Were You

You can say, "I do." But can you follow through? A promise - even a promise as big as a wedding vow - doesn't mean anything without preparation to back it up. In this message, Andy has a "to do" list that will prepare you to one day say "I do" and mean it.

February 22, 2012

It was very surprising to have Georgia allow Obama on their 2012 ballot despite his no show at the courthouse. But like in so many other cases, you have to follow the money. And $8.3 billion is a lot of money to follow.

On February 3, 2012, a state administrative law judge Michael Malihi inexplicably ruled in favor of the defendant, Obama, in an unprecedented hearing on a sitting U.S. president’s eligibility to be on Georgia’s 2012 election ballot.

In so doing, Malihi reversed his own prior declaration that he would issue a default ruling in favor of the plaintiffs because neither the defendant nor his attorney (Michael Jablonski) even appeared at the hearing.

In an interview with Rev. James David Manning, private investigator Susan Daniels noted that within a week after the hearing, the state of Georgia received approval for two nuclear-power plants from the Obama administration. What a coincidence!

These are the first nuclear plants to receive federally guaranteed loans since 1978. And the head of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission opposed the project as the proposed reactor designs do not take into consideration design flaws revealed through the earthquake-induced flooding at the Fukushima facility.

28 SEP 2011 - Dana Perino (FOX News) describing an interview she recently had with a Navy SEAL. After discussing all the countries that he had been sent to, she asked if they had to learn several languages.

February 20, 2012

A MAN was sentenced to a year in prison for attempting to rob a UK power substation that exploded when he urinated against a transformer.

Michael Harper, 36, was permanently disfigured after suffering serious burns in the blast at the electricity substation under a railway arch in Leicester, central England, The Leicester Mercury said today.

The father of two was left burning on the floor by his accomplice, 50-year-old Richard Boyce, who tried to drive off but later was found by police with blistered hands.

The incident last March also left 2000 homes and businesses without power and caused £26,500 ($42,000) damage as the two men tried to take metal from the station last March.

February 19, 2012

As President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad looks on, Irani nuclear gynocologists strap a pregnant breeder reactor into the stirrups to check the progress of her birth pangs.

And as Iran prints the birth announcements (several are addressed to Tel Aviv) the world holds it's breath.

But our own Secretary of State is far too busy considering liposuction on her thighs in order to fit into the snug little chair of the World Bank. In contrast, the British Foreign Secretary is paying attention and is none too pleased with this development; in fact, he is alarmed as we all should be:

Iran’s scientists may soon be able to present their country’s obdurate and ruthless leaders with an invulnerable means of constructing a nuclear arsenal. As William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, warns in his interview with this newspaper today, any such decision on the part of the regime would trigger a “new Cold War in the Middle East without, necessarily, all the safety mechanisms”.

[...]As Mr Hague makes clear, the window to avoid this outcome is closing. Our Government has sensibly followed a twin-track approach, offering to negotiate with Iran while imposing tighter sanctions. But this policy is being outpaced by events: hardly any economic measures are left in the locker; meanwhile, Iran is steadily stockpiling more low-enriched uranium. As yet, this material is processed only to the level needed to run nuclear power stations or a civilian research reactor. But it could be further enriched to weapons-grade if the regime chose.

I say that since the liberals in this administration are so fond of partial birth abortions, lets give them something to cheer about. Let's wait until the little Atomic Ayatollah draws its first breath and then slam a pair of massive JDAM's into the back of its skull.

The Occupy protestors can use police cars as toilet paper, but as a Christian protestor, don't you dare pray in front of the White House.

Six pro-life activists, including one Catholic priest, were arrested this morning in front of the White House while holding a peaceful prayer vigil in protest against the Obama administration’s birth control mandate. They were released shortly thereafter, after paying a $100 fine.

Fr. Denis Wilde, the Associate Director of Priests for Life, told LifeSiteNews that by their arrests the protesters hoped to send a “wake-up call” to President Obama that opposition to his mandate is not going away.

The six were arrested on a charge of “disobeying a lawful order.” The priest explained that while it is legal to hold protests in front of the White House, protesters are not allowed to remain stationary, including if they kneel down and pray.

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